Orlando, Florida (CNN) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday asked an audience of social conservatives in Florida to pray for President Barack Obama.

"As I campaign for president, I not only ask you for your vote and your support, I ask you for your prayers," Perry said. "I ask you to pray for our country. I ask you to pray for our president to give him wisdom, to open his eyes."FULL POST

New York (CNN) – I had a rare opportunity to talk directly with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today at a press event he held in New York after he addressed the UN General Assembly.

By most accounts, Ahmadinejad’s views are way out there. He stuck to his favorite talking points on a variety of topics ranging from America’s troubles, Israel, the uprising in the Middle East, and homosexuality. When faced with negative questions about Iran, Ahmadinejad knew how to quickly deflect and turn it back toward the flaws of the United States. In our one-hour together, the Iranian leader was asked about several of those issues.

Washington (CNN) - One year before the 2012 presidential election, former President Bill Clinton will offer the same advice to Democrats as first got him elected almost 20 years ago: "It's the economy, stupid."

Clinton's latest book, "Back to Work," will be released this November, and will offer solutions to some of America's most pressing problems. He may not say the famous words of then-campaign adviser James Carville, but the intent is clear.FULL POST

Orlando (CNN) - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Thursday that the 2012 presidential election is "a window of opportunity" for social conservatives because President Barack Obama is so politically vulnerable.

Republicans have a chance to nominate the most conservative candidate possible and still take back the White House next November, she said.FULL POST

(CNN) - Republican leaders will propose cutting more spending to offset the amount of additional disaster relief money in a short-term government spending measure defeated earlier by the House, a GOP aide told CNN on Thursday.

The additional spending cut, called an offset, would be roughly $100 million from a Department of Energy loan program linked to a solar panel firm that recently collapsed, said another Republican source.FULL POST

(CNN) - President Barack Obama on Thursday took his pitch for his $447 billion jobs bill to the shadows of an aging bridge that connects Ohio and Kentucky - homes to the top Republican leaders in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Obama spoke in Cincinnati, on the Ohio side of the Brent Spence Bridge.

Washington (CNNMoney) - In a year when lawmakers barely averted a federal shutdown and a default on its debts, Congress is poised to spread more uncertainty on an economy already suffering from a consumer confidence crisis.

The latest spat on Capitol Hill is over how to relieve disaster-struck states. It threatens to hold up a stop-gap budget measure needed to avert a federal shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.